UPA should rethink nominee for civil vigilance commissioner

Some sensitive posts — that of election commissioner, the chief vigilance commissioner, and the chief information commissioner — should be filled only through consensus.

For two reasons: one, this is the only way to build credibility into the system; and two, such posts should be free from partisan finger-pointing.

This is why the government needs to take the main Opposition, the BJP’s objections to the appointment of PJ Thomas as the next central vigilance commissioner (CVC), seriously.

The CVC, in the role of general ombudsman, investigates acts of omission and commission within government. Like the Election Commission, it must owe its loyalty to the Constitution rather than to the executive.

Given how endemic the corruption malaise is within our system, the CVC ought to be a persona cleaner than soap. The BJP wants a person of unblemished reputation and Thomas was once implicated in the Kerala palm oil import scam.

Although he was later exonerated, unfortunately such mud sticks. The CVC will be investigating, in the immediate future, the 2G spectrum scam, and possibly the whole Commonwealth Games mess. He or she has to be someone who has no connection with either of these two matters.